Cadel Evans in action. Source: Michael Klein / News Limited
CADEL Evans is nothing if not relentlessly competitive, which is why he became Australia's greatest road cyclist.
That won't be changing just because the final chapter in a great Australian sports story is about to be written.
Evans, 37, will contest the national championships, which begin in Ballarat today, for the last time and is determined to go out with a bang in the road race at nearby Buninyong on Sunday.
"I'm going to Ballarat to ride the best race I can. If I get a result, that's even better. I'm going there to race well and do my best," he said.
Whatever happens, it will be a red-letter day for a sport that has much for which to thank the idiosyncratic superstar, who created an unprecedented surge of public interest when he became the first Australian to win the Tour de France in 2011.
Cadel Evans in action. Source: News Limited
It might be struggling to get its head back above water financially, but Australian cycling has rarely, if ever, been in a better place competitively, thanks to Evans and an accomplished group of former and current riders over the past 20 years.
That will be on show over the next four days with classy fields in the championship events for men and women: the criteriums tonight, the time trials tomorrow, the women's road race on Saturday and then the one that is expected to pull more than 20,000 fans and a big live TV audience on Sunday Cadel v. the Rest.
New talent pops up with impressive regularity, with the latest to have the experts unanimously predicting big things Caleb Ewan, winner of this week's Bay Classic the hot favourite to unseat defending champion Steele Von Hoff in the criterium.
Time trials are not cycling's most spectator-friendly event but the men's field tomorrow is the best ever assembled for an Australian title, with Michael Rogers, Luke Durbridge, Jack Bobridge, Damien Howson, Campbell Flakemore, Cameron Meyer, Richie Porte and Rohan Dennis all world-class performers.
The women's road race is wide-open but Gracie Elvin, winner for the past two years, showed good form in winning a stage with a mechanical mishap perhaps costing her a second one at the Bay crits.
Australia's Cadel Evans celebrates. Source: AFP
But with due respect to them all, Evans towers over the weekend like the tough little mountain the men have to climb 18 times on their 183.6km battle.
It is his third last race he will follow it with the Tour Down Under in Adelaide and then the new one-day event at Geelong which carries his name before retirement, and, obviously, his last chance to win the national championship which he first contested in 1992.
He almost did it last year when he finished second behind Orica-GreenEDGE star Simon Gerrans and ahead of Porte, a trifecta that left little doubt spectators had witnessed the best-ever domestic title race.
Gerrans, who also beat him narrowly in the TDU, is back in Europe recovering from a recent crash in which he broke his collarbone, so Evans and Porte are the obvious favourites to fight it out even though they will be outnumbered by the rest of the GreenEDGE juggernaut.
Always a pragmatist, Evans isn't getting carried away by the prospect of a Hollywood ending.
"I don't believe in fairytales," he said.
"The chances of victory are probably about the same as in 1992 because I'm so watched now as a rider.
"We just have to be realistic about these things. We'll prepare as well as we can, do the best race we can and the result will tell the story."
2015 MARS CYCLING AUSTRALIA ROAD NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
TODAY
Criterium in Ballarat CBD
4.30pm: U23 men 33km
5.30pm: U23 and elite women 33km
7pm: Elite men 44km
TOMORROW
Individual Time Trial at Buninyong
10.30am: U23 men 29.3km
12.30pm: U23 and elite women 29.3km
2.15pm: Elite men 40.9km
SATURDAY
Road Race at Buninyong
9am: U23 men 132.6km
1.30pm: U23 and elite women 102km
SUNDAY
Road Race at Buninyong
10.50am: Elite men 183.6km
ron.reed@news.com.au
Twitter: @Reedrw
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